All in the Family

A friend & my one true blog buddy sent me this NYTimes article on GWB's brother Neil, who is selling his version of education curriculum to various schools, A Bush Brother Spreads His Vision of Computerized Teaching Programs. Using tools such as video games, the piece notes:

The clips emanate from a purple plastic box, known as a COW, for Curriculum on Wheels. They are the brainchild of Neil Bush, brother of the president, who is president of Ignite! Learning. The company has sold its science and social studies curriculums, aimed mostly at middle school grades, to 2,300 of the nation’s 85,000 public schools, and is seeking to expand its business to China, Japan, South Korea and the Middle East.

Mr. Bush’s curriculum coordinates with both the standards movement sweeping states and its national embodiment, No Child Left Behind, which requires all children in Grades 3 to 8 to be tested each year in reading and math, and once in science. Some educators have criticized Mr. Bush for using his brother’s No Child Left Behind law to market his product.

* * * *

Inside each COW is a hard drive containing a year’s worth of social studies or science lessons done in short cartoons, songs and occasional straight narration. The lessons are devised to match the standards in many states, and the company is working on a math curriculum.

Mr. Bush said his curriculum made social studies and science more accessible. “Middle schools use 19th-century technologies to teach 21st-century kids,” he said. “Textbooks honestly have failed middle school children. They rely on children’s ability to read, and they’re boring.” (Emphasis added).

Now, I'm a proponent of teaching to learn, rather than teaching to test, as well as being open to exploring innovative methods of teaching. However, in many cases these methods should be taught in addition to, rather than instead of, the basics.

And lord knows, I'm a techie, so I love the latest gadget and believe technology should be incorporated into the classroom. But I'm afraid that reliance on such methodologies is resulting in deficits in certain skills, especially written language skills. Writing (i.e., the use of cursive) is becoming obsolete, along with spelling and vocabulary skills. The early use of computers (along with spell check) has greatly contributed to this deficit.

As for the article and Bush's role, never mind the politics of using family connections. It's the substance that's really out of whack. Now we should throw out the textbooks in favor of learning via video games, because they rely on boring skills such as reading?

Oy. As my friend Susan put it:

I think the apple does not fall far from another apple from the same tree.

(Edited for clarity -- I guess I'm using too much technology)

Tags: Education, Bush, News